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PROGRAM D-8096
Have you ever found yourself in a position of being the object of someone else’s jealousy? Truly this can be a most stressful predicament. If you work in the marketplace, you may discover that people are jealous of you because of some success you’ve had or some favor you may have legitimately earned. How should you deal with this?
In the sixth chapter of Daniel, we see where Daniel faced the jealousy of his coworkers. Through hard work and excellent service, Daniel had risen to one of the three top positions in his country. He had so distinguished himself among his peers and with his boss, the king, that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.
However, when his peers heard about his promotion, they were jealous! Oh, were they jealous! To make their jealousy worse, Daniel was not one of them. He was a Jewish man, brought into the king’s court by force after Jerusalem had been demolished by the king. Yet, he out-performed all the nationals and was recognized as the best.
In their jealousy, these peers set out to ruin Daniel. They tried to find charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but Daniel 6:4 tells us they were unable to do so because Daniel was trustworthy, neither corrupt nor negligent.
Wow, what a testimony Daniel had! Try as they might, they could not find anything in his performance to legitimately criticize. Could our peers and coworkers say that about us? If they went on a witch hunt, would they find it impossible to prove that we had in any way been dishonest or less than diligent in our job performance?
You won’t have to worry about the witch hunts if you know your performance is above reproach. Begin by cleaning up your work habits—be on time every day and don’t take long lunch breaks, for example. Never take anything from your employer—this includes even small supply items and telephone breaks. Give your employer the time due her or him. Make sure you really try to do your work right—going the extra mile to help others, and thinking and caring about what’s good for the company.
Daniel 6:2 tells us that Daniel’s job was to see that the king did not suffer loss, and he did it so well that no one could find anything wrong with his performance. Ask God to help you shore up the weak areas in your job performance so that the same can be said of you. Then, like Daniel, regardless of what false charges may be brought against you for reasons of jealousy or anything else, you can be assured of God’s protection.